Dead Age Xbox One Review

"Repetitive Survival"

Campaign

Dead Age is a turn based zombie survival game with a loose narrative thrown in. After selecting from some mode tweaking options, jump into a situation where permadeath is a big deal. Work through the story day by day, collecting resources or completing quests. There are a few missions to take part in and a wide range of characters to meet. These smaller tales are told through text based ventures and combat.

During a typical day you can either quest it up, scavenge for supplies or take part in a crafting activity. You'll have a primary character that needs to survive and a stable of others to manage. Your attack squad is a max of three so you'll need to coordinate and use the others to protect the base or gather additional resources. It's a neat setup and the core of this experience. That, and the combat aspect which is where most of your time is spent. The format was much better as while the combat is neat, it does feel incredibly repetitive.

Gameplay

In the turn based battle you manage survivors with certain options to attack or manage their inventory. To the side of that are an assortment of zombies, wolves or other survivors battling you. There are a few areas you'll face opponents within and each mixes up the enemies slightly. The backdrops really don't change much however so you witness the same area, over and over again. The visuals were alright here, nothing too impressive.

There's light depth to choosing how you attack and at times waves of enemies are present. Afterwards you may get to make a small side quest choice or just keeping going. You can of course back out too, which is a good idea if your health is low. There are RPG elements as you improve skills of survivors as they level and manage some tools. You're able to equip various weapons, craft guns or even make supplies if needed.

The Conclusion

Dead Age is an interesting, yet incredibly repetitive turn based zombie survival title that's just alright on the console. It can provide some decent gameplay time if you're into it, but damn does it get boring. It can also be entirely tedious if you're on a harder difficulty whereas the easier one is too simple.

I could see most doing a single playthrough and being done with it. There really should have been a more dynamic offering in terms of quests as the main selection is always so similar. I liked the idea of what they were going for with this one, but it just lacks content. Visions of the same backdrops over and over are area melted into the back of my mind. Even the narrative elements are fairly weak, at times making little to no sense. It certainly has its moments, but this one feels a bit too basic.